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Anthropic research warns AI could build itself by 2028

In this exclusive interview, Axios co-founder Mike Allen sits down with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark to discuss his warning that by 2028, AI systems may be able to improve and build better versions of themselves.

Clark explains why Anthropic is preparing for the possibility of an “intelligence explosion,” how advanced AI could accelerate breakthroughs in science and medicine, and why governments, companies and researchers need new plans for cyber threats, bio risks, economic disruption and the future of work.

Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction: the future of AI
00:41 — The 2028 prediction: AI building itself.
01:49 — The risks of rapid acceleration.
03:11 — The 3D printer metaphor.
05:21 — Intelligence explosion and fire drill scenarios.
06:55 — Building a \.

Engineered wood provides solar power even after the sun goes down

While sustainable solar energy can potentially meet our global power needs, it has one major flaw. When sunlight disappears, solar panels stop generating electricity. The problem is that while they do an excellent job of converting light into power, they are not so good at storing the energy they collect.

One solution is to use materials known to capture heat and release it later, such as phase change materials (PCMs). However, these can leak when they melt, struggle to conduct heat quickly, and catch fire easily. So researchers from China decided on a different approach, turning wood into a multifunctional solar-thermal energy storage material, as they detail in a paper published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Reengineering balsa wood The team redesigned the internal structure of balsa wood at multiple scales, from nano to micro, to create a material that absorbs sunlight and stores it as heat for later use. It can also generate electricity when that stored heat is released through a thermoelectric device.

Novel diabetic wound treatment turns cells into manufacturers

Spread the love Diabetes affects more than 40 million people in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association. For many, the chronic condition means a lifetime of pain as worsening circulation leads to nonhealing ulcers in the extremities, especially the legs and feet. Chronic inflammation, difficulty in forming nutrient-carrying capillaries, and overzealous immune cells…

The Ant and the Absolute: How Feynman Discovered Bio-Computing in a Sink

Why does an ant, with a brain smaller than a grain of sand, find the shortest path better than a human engineer?

Richard Feynman didn’t learn about ants from a textbook. He learned by sitting on his bathroom floor with a sugar cube and a stopwatch. What he discovered wasn’t just biology—it was a biological supercomputer solving the \.

New MRI technology maps 20-plus brain biomarkers in a single 14-minute scan

New multiplexed imaging technology using standard clinical MRI systems can simultaneously map more than 20 biomarkers in high resolution, providing a comprehensive view of the brain with a single scan.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated the multiplexed MRI technology (MRx) by characterizing brain tumors and multiple sclerosis lesions—revealing different structural, physiological and molecular changes within the diseases. Led by Zhi-Pei Liang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I., the team has reported its findings in the journal Nature.

“MRx can be a powerful tool for noninvasive tissue characterization, helping to advance personalized, precision and predictive medicine,” Liang said. “By providing rich, multidimensional biomarkers to capture disease progression and treatment response, this capability could open new opportunities for more precise diagnosis, individualized treatment planning and improved patient outcomes.”

Study of a Million Blood Cells Helps Explain Why Women Face More Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune diseases, where the body’s own immune system mistakenly goes on the attack, are much more common in women – and a new study analyzing more than 1.25 million blood cells goes a long way to explaining why.

The analysis, led by a team from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, revealed over 1,000 genetic ‘switches’ in immune cells that work differently depending on sex.

In short, these variations in gene activity mean that inflammatory pathways that respond to threats are likely to be busier in women, leading to a greater risk of conditions like lupus and multiple sclerosis.

The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope, a New Tool for Finding Exoplanets

Since the goal is to find Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars, the Sun is an ideal proxy, as it is the only one astronomers can fully resolve. Dedicated instruments with high-precision spectrographs have been developed to observe the “Sun-as-a-star,” such as the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher North (HARPS-N) solar telescope and the HARPS spectrograph (HELIOS). The main drawback is that only disc-integrated spectra are obtained, precluding a detailed analysis of individual stellar features.

According to the team, what is needed is a telescope that can offer three vital things: 1. Spatially resolved spectroscopy with very high wavelength stability 2. Very high spectral resolution to adequately resolve photospheric line asymmetries 3. Extended wavelength coverage, for the simultaneous observation of thousands of spectral lines probing different physical conditions.

This, they claim, can be achieved by linking the ESPRESSO spectrograph to a solar telescope — in this case, PoET. The solar telescope will observe the Sun at different spatial scales, corresponding to sunspots and solar granules, and send the light it gathers to ESPRESSO via optical fibers. The overall system involves three telescopes, starting with the main telescope (MT) developed by Officina Stellare. This telescope has a Gregorian configuration, standard for solar observations, and will observe small areas of the solar disc.

Anthropic to consider using SpaceX orbital data center satellites

WASHINGTON — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic will study use of orbital data centers being developed by SpaceX.

The two companies announced agreements May 6 giving Anthropic, developer of a line of AI products known as Claude, access to both terrestrial data centers as well as potential use of SpaceX’s orbital data center.

In the near term, Anthropic will purchase all the capacity of a SpaceX terrestrial data center, Colossus 1, with more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity. Anthropic said that capacity will allow it to raise limits on usage of Claude products for its customers.

Scientists Uncover Hidden Property of Light That Twists Matter Sideways

The researchers confirmed this by designing experiments that removed angular momentum while preserving helicity. The sideways rotation still occurred, showing that helicity plays the key role.

This finding offers a deeper understanding of how light interacts with matter at extremely small scales. It also points to new ways of controlling nanoscale systems, with possible applications in light-driven nanomachines and advanced sensing technologies.

“This work represents a new measurement paradigm for nanoscale optomechanics,” says Tanaka. “Just as optical tweezers opened a new field in single-molecule biophysics, we hope this platform will unlock access to nanoscale mechanical phenomena that have so far remained beyond reach.”

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